SMS Keywords

Keywords are special words or phrases that, when detected to contain within a customer's SMS text message, can be used to trigger some event within Cheetah Digital. For example, a customer could text the phrase "COUPON," which would trigger a "welcome" response message, and make that customer a candidate for future promotional campaigns. Or, a customer could text the phrase "STOP" to opt-out of any future SMS campaigns.

Keywords can be organized into groups, which allows you to link the same triggered activity to all of the words or phrases contained within that group. By using Keyword groups, you can create a list of similar words or spelling variations. However, you don't need to create variations of the same keyword with different lower and upper cases, such as “STOP“, “Stop“, “stop“, as they are case insensitive, meaning that “STOP” matches with variations such as "StOp" or "stop".

You can easily manage keywords without worrying about case sensitivity or complex patterns. For example, your Opt-out Keyword group could include: "stop," "unsubscribe"," unsub," "cancel," "opt-out," and "opt out." If Cheetah Digital detected that consumer's text message contained any of these words , it would then process the opt-out request.

Keywords can also be used to capture data about a customer. For example, you could ask customers to text you their email address, so they can receive future email marketing messages. Cheetah Digital will detect the presence of the email address in the customer's text message, and add that information to the customer's record in your database.

Keywords and Keyword Groups are associated with a Short Code. If you're using a dedicated Short Code, then you can set up as many Keywords and Keyword Groups as you'd like. However, if you're using a shared Short Code, you have to be very careful not to use Keywords that conflict with other clients that share your same Short Code.

If a customer sends a text message with unrecognizable content, the system can be configured to reply with a default message. This feature is not available within the Cheetah Digital user interface though, and must be configured by your support team. If you want to set up a default response message, contact your support team, and provide them with the desired content of the message. The support team will set up the default response accordingly.

Access

The SMS Keywords screen is used to build and manage Keywords and Keyword Groups. This screen is accessible by the following method:

  • From the Main menu, select Assets > Execution > SMS Keywords

Create a New Keyword Group: Automated Responses

To create a new Keyword Group for the purpose of triggering automated responses:

  1. Above the list of existing Keyword Groups, click + New button.

  2. A New Keyword Group pop-up window is displayed. In the Name field, enter a name for the new Keyword Group.

  3. Click Create.  The Workspace is refreshed to show the Keyword Group detail screen.

  4. The SMS Keywords section is used to define all of the Keywords in this group. In the Add New Keyword field, enter a Keyword, then click the add button (plus-sign icon). Keywords are case insensitive. Repeat this step as needed to define more Keywords for this Keyword Group.

  5. The Status Fields section is used to modify a status flag based on the receipt of a response containing one of the Keywords in this group. Every mobile phone field (where the Data Type of the field is "Phone") has a corresponding, system-generated Status ID field that controls the eligibility of this consumer to be contacted. If you want to modify this Status ID field based on the receipt of a Keyword, select the phone field from the drop-down menu, then select the desired value for the Status ID Field:

    • Active -- Change the Status ID field for this Phone field to "100 - Active."

    • Inactive -- Change the Status ID field for this Phone field to "1100 - Inactive."

    • Opt-Out via Reply -- Change the Status ID field for this Phone field to "1525 - Opt Out Via Reply."

    • Double Opt-In -- This option is designed to be used with the Double Confirm Opt-In process. If you select this option, the system will modify the "double confirm" status field, rather than the main Status ID field. This option is intended to be used only for Confirmation Keywords, where consumers are confirming their desire to receive text messages. See SMS Text Channel Setup: Double Confirm Opt-in Campaigns for more details.

  1. Optionally, if this Keyword Group is used to process opt-out requests, place a check mark in the Opt-Out Flag check box.

  2. Optionally, you can assign one or more tags to your Keyword Group. To assign a tag, click on the Add tag field in the Editsection of the Tool Ribbon. The system displays a pop-up menu of all the existing tags. You can select one of these tags, or type in a new one and press Enter. You can repeat this process to add more tags. To remove a tag, click the X icon next to the tag label.  

  3. When finished, click Edit > Save in the Tool Ribbon.

Create a New Keyword Group: Data Capture

This topic describes how to create a new Keyword Group for the purpose of capturing customer-provided information.

To create a new Keyword Group:

  1. Above the list of existing Keyword Groups, click the + New button.

  2. A New Keyword Group pop-up window is displayed. In the Name field, enter a name for the new Keyword Group.

  3. Click Create. The Workspace is refreshed to show the Keyword Group detail screen.

  4. In the Add New Keyword field, enter a Keyword, then click the add button (plus-sign icon). Keywords are case insensitive. Repeat this step as needed to define more Keywords for this Keyword Group.

  5. Optionally, to use Regex keywords, place a check mark in the Regex Capture check box.

  6. From the Value Match drop-down menu, select either:

    • Entire Keyword: This option should be used if the consumer is expected to send ONLY the desired data to be captured, without any other keywords or information within the message.

    • Name Value Pair: This option should be used if the consumer is expected to send some keyword, followed by the desired data to be captured. For example, "EMAIL john.smith@email.com." In this situation, the platform will recognize that the first word is the keyword, and the second word is the value that needs to be captured and stored in the database.

  1. The platform provides a set of commonly-used Regular Expressions that can be used to capture the following: email addresses, phone numbers, dates, and dollar amounts. To use one of these built-in Regular Expressions, select it from the Common Regexes drop-down menu. The Add New Keyword field is populated with the Regular Expression syntax needed to capture this data. Or, you can enter your own custom Regex syntax in the Add New Keyword field.

  2. Optionally, you can test the Regex syntax to verify that it's accurately collecting the expected data. Enter a test value in the Test Regex Capture text field, then click the Test Regex link. The system tests your value against the Regex syntax, then displays a dialog box with the test results.

  3. Click the add button (plus-sign icon) to add the Regex syntax to your Keyword Group. Repeat steps 6-8 as needed to add more Regular Expressions to your group.

  4. The Status Fields section is used to modify a status flag based on the receipt of a response containing one of the Keywords in this group. Every mobile phone field (where the Data Type of the field is "Phone") has a corresponding, system-generated Status ID field that controls the eligibility of this consumer to be contacted. If you want to modify this Status ID field based on the receipt of a Keyword, select the phone field from the drop-down menu, then select the desired value for the Status ID Field:

    • Active -- Change the Status ID field for this Phone field to "100 - Active."

    • Inactive -- Change the Status ID field for this Phone field to "1100 - Inactive."

    • Opt-Out via Reply -- Change the Status ID field for this Phone field to "1525 - Opt Out Via Reply."

    • Double Opt-In -- This option is designed to be used with the Double Confirm Opt-In process. If you select this option, the system will modify the "double confirm" status field, rather than the main Status ID field. This option is intended to be used only for Confirmation Keywords, where consumers are confirming their desire to receive text messages. See SMS Text Channel Setup: Double Confirm Opt-in Campaigns for more details.

  1. Optionally, if this Keyword Group is used to process opt-out requests, place a check mark in the Opt-Out Flag check box.

  2. Optionally, you can assign one or more tags to your Keyword Group. To assign a tag, click on the Add tag field in the Edit section of the Tool Ribbon. The system displays a pop-up menu of all the existing tags. You can select one of these tags, or type in a new one and press Enter. You can repeat this process to add more tags. To remove a tag, click the X icon next to the tag label.  

  3. When finished, click Edit > Save in the Tool Ribbon.

Copy a Keyword Group

To copy an existing item to use as the basis for a new item:

  1. Search for the desired item (see Search for an Item for more details).

  2. Click on the item name. The main item screen is displayed and populated with the details of the selected item.

  3. In the Tool Ribbon, click Edit > Save As. A Save as dialog box is displayed.

  4. Enter a name for the new item.

  5. By default, the new item will be saved in the same folder location as the base item. Optionally, click the magnifying glass icon to browse to and select a different folder location.

  6. Click save a copy. The system creates a copy of the selected item.

View or Edit a Keyword Group

If a Keyword Group is currently in use in an active SMS marketing campaign, then you should take care in making any changes to that Keyword Group, as those changes will impact that campaign. For reference purposes, the Active Campaigns section of the screen lists all of the currently active Campaigns that are using this Keyword Group.

To view or edit an existing Keyword Group:

  1. When the screen is displayed, a list of all the current Keyword Groups is displayed in the left-hand side of the Workspace. Optionally, you can filter this list by typing in all or part of a Keyword Group name in the Search by Name field.

  2. Click on the Keyword Group that you want to view. The Workspace is refreshed to show the details of the selected Keyword Group.

  3. Optionally, to view detailed information about the Keyword Group, click the SMS Keyword Group tab in the Tool Ribbon. The Item Details screen is displayed, showing who created the item, who modified it last, and what the last actions taken on the item were. On this screen, click Related Items in the Function Menu to see other items in the system that reference or utilize this Keyword Group. When finished, click the Edit tab in the Tool Ribbon to return to the main edit screen.

  4. Make any necessary changes to the Keyword Group:

    • To add a Keyword to this group, enter a Keyword in the Add New Keyword field, then click the add button (plus-sign icon).

    • To remove a Keyword from this group, click the remove button (X icon) next to the Keyword.

    • To add a Status Field to this group, select the Phone field from the drop-down menu, then select the desired value for the Status Field: Active, Inactive, or Opt-Out via Reply.

    • To remove a Status Field from this group, click the remove button (X icon) next to the field.

  1. Optionally, to rename the Keyword Group, click Edit > Rename. A Rename Item dialog box is displayed. Enter a new name for the Keyword Group, then click save new name.

  2. Optionally, you can assign one or more tags to your Keyword Group. To assign a tag, click on the Add tag field in the Edit > Tags section of the Tool Ribbon. The system displays a pop-up menu of all the existing tags. You can select one of these tags, or type in a new one and press Enter. You can repeat this process to add more tags. To remove a tag, click the X icon next to the tag label.  

  3. To save your changes, click Edit > Save in the Tool Ribbon. The system will prompt you with a warning message that changing the Keyword Group may impact any currently active Campaigns. Click ok to confirm or cancel to discard your changes.

Delete a Keyword Group

To delete an item:

  1. Search for the desired item (see Search for an Item for more details).

  2. Click on the item name. The main item screen is displayed and populated with the details of the selected item.

  3. In the Tool Ribbon, click Edit > Delete. A confirmation dialog box is displayed.

  4. Click delete item to confirm the deletion.

Foldered items are moved to the Recycle Bin. Non-foldered items are permanently deleted.

Assign a Keyword Group to a Campaign

Keyword Groups can be associated with an SMS Text Campaign for two primary purposes: 1) to trigger an automated response, and / or  2) to capture customer-provided data.

Automated Responses

If you're using Keywords to trigger the submission of an automated response message back to the customer:

  1. Navigate to the desired SMS Text Campaign (see Campaigns for more details).

  2. In the Tool Ribbon, click Responses > Add Responses > Add Keyword Response. The SMS Keyword Responses dialog box is displayed.

  3. From the Short Code drop-down menu, select the Short Code to which customers will text their responses.

  4. From the Keyword drop-down menu, select the desired Keyword Group.

Note: Only Keyword Groups that do NOT use Regular Expressions (and therefore are not being used for data capture purposes) are available in this drop-down menu.

  1. From the Match Phone Field drop-down menu, select the Phone field on the Campaign's source table. The system will look for a match between the mobile phone number on the customer's response and the field you select here, in order to identify the customer.

  2. In the Confirmation Message text field, enter the confirmation message that will automatically get sent back to the customer upon receipt of one of the Keywords in the selected Keyword Group.

  3. Click save response.

  4. The system adds a new section named SMS Keywords within the Responses section of the Campaign detail screen. From this new section, you can see a list of all the automated response Keyword Groups assigned to this Campaign. If you need to remove a Keyword Group, click the remove button (X icon) next to the group name. If you need to edit the Keyword Group, click the Edit icon to bring up the SMS Keyword Responses dialog box.

Note: You can't edit the contents of the Keyword Group (that is, the actual Keywords contained within the group) directly from the Campaign screen. If you need to change the Keywords within the group, you must navigate to the SMS Keywords screen (see View or Edit a Keyword Group for details).

  1. In the Tool Ribbon, click Edit > Save.

Data Capture

If you're using Keywords to capture data (such as an email address, for example) on the customer's response:

  1. Navigate to the desired SMS Campaign (see Campaigns for more details).

  2. In the Tool Ribbon, click Responses > Add Responses > Add SMS Data Capture. The SMS Data Capture dialog box is displayed.

  3. From the Short Code drop-down menu, select the Short Code to which customers will text their responses.

  4. From the Keyword drop-down menu, select the desired Keyword Group.

Note: Only Keyword Groups that use Regular Expressions (and therefore are intended for data capture purposes) are available in this drop-down menu.

  1. From the Match Phone Field drop-down menu, select the Phone field on the Campaign's source table. The system will look for a match between the mobile phone number on the customer's response and the field you select here, in order to identify the customer.

  2. From the Update Field drop-down menu, select the field in your database that the system will update with the data provided by the customer.

  3. Click save response.

  4. The system adds a new section named SMS Data within the Responses section of the Campaign detail screen. From this new section, you can see a list of all data capture Keyword Groups assigned to this Campaign. If you need to remove a Keyword Group, click the remove button (X icon) next to the group name. If you need to edit the Keyword Group, click the Edit icon to bring up the SMS Data Capture dialog box.

Note: You can't edit the details of the Keyword Group (such as the Regular Expression syntax, for example) directly from the Campaign screen. If you need to change the details of the Keyword Group, you must navigate to the SMS Keywords screen.

  1. In the Tool Ribbon, click Edit > Save.